of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



249 



the value of floods is so Higbly appreciated that waters which ordinarily 

 run to waste when there is a surplusage are impounded and stored till 

 such time as a flood would be beneficial in the interests of the fishing. 

 Thus, when in summer weather or in a dry spring the river has become 

 unduly low, and the fish stale and of? the rise through being long confined 

 in the same pools, the letting down of an artificially-arranged spate is 

 found to have most beneficial results. 



In the 26th Annual Report, 1908 (Part II. p. 3), I referred to the Forth 

 District, and the relative water supplies of the Vennacher and Lubnaig 

 branches, showing that the latter has, if anything, the larger rainfall and 

 water supply, and pointing out in the interests of the Leny and Teith, 

 and in view of the great value of preserving and, if possible, improving 

 the conditions which still remain, that it might be possible to raise the 

 level of Loch Lubnaig at the outlet opposite St. Bride's Signal Box on 

 the Callander and Oban Railway, so as to secure an impounded head of 

 water under control of the fishery interests. I pointed out, however, 

 that the difference of level between Loch Voil and Loch Lubnaig was 

 only 9 feet, and that the rise and fall of the latter loch amounted to 6 feet. 

 A greater rise than 6 feet begins to endanger not only the railway line 

 but the village of Strathyre. 



Drift Netting. 



Drift netting for salmon in Scotland theoretically came to an end 

 with the decision of the House of Lordo in the Tay Case (1900) — Duke 

 of Atholl and others against the Glovers Incorporation of Perth. As a 

 matter of fact, however, a more or less imperfect form of drift netting 

 has continued in the estuary of the Forth. This has been referred to 

 repeatedly in the reports I have received from the District Board. It is 

 referred to again this year. The Board have had to keep a steam launch 

 for some years for the special purpose of dealing with the evil. In the 

 inquiry I had occasion to hold in Stirling into the proposal for an altera- 

 tion of the Rod-Fishing Season, I noticed that the action of water-baihffs 

 during " the drift netting season " was referred to, and also that " the 

 drift netting " was spoken of as a recognised and regular annual offence. 

 The next day I took occasion to see for myself what this drift netting 

 amounted to. I went to Alloa, and, declining the use of the steam launch 

 as a craft easily recognised at a distance, I went down the river in an 

 ordinary salmon coble. At Dunmore eleven boats were putting off with 

 nets. Each boat was of ordinary rowing-boat type, and carried either 

 two men and a boy or one man and two boys. 



The operation of fishing was this : — A boy was put ashore with a light 

 tow-line, and the net was run out at an angle to the beach, or at times 

 almost parallel to the beach. In no case did I see the net shot as a sweep 

 or draught net is shot, in a curve and the end drawn ashore, nor did the 

 tow-boy work along the shore so that the two ends of the net might be 

 approximated. On the other hand, I noticed that when the net was 

 hauled, the boat was backed along the line of the shot, while the net 

 was lifted into the boat as an ordinary drift net is lifted. The tow-line 

 to the shore, therefore, served no useful purpose, and, so far as I could 

 discover, was present only to give some appearance of a sweep net. It 

 would be quite possible, for instance, should a watcher's boat come on 

 the scene, to row the drifting end of the net ashore, and haul the net as 

 in net and coble fishing. 



Continuing down the river towards Kincardine, a boat was noticed 

 being rowed across the channel by two men. As we approached, one of 



